Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, Eastern Europe; The Soviet Union, Volume IV

861.24/6–1047

Memorandum by the Soviet Delegation Concerning Inventory of Lend-Lease Articles Undistributed as of September 2, 1945¹

confidential

[Washington,] June 10, 1947.

The inventory attached hereto² comprises actual data available to the appropriate Soviet authorities concerning all articles, military as well as civil, received by the USSR under lend-lease and undistributed among consumers as of September 2, 1945. The classification of articles in the inventory corresponds to that of the Fourth Protocol.³ The inventory comprises supplies that were en route on September 2, 1945 and those shipped from the USA between September 2 and September 20, 1945, as well as the balances of supplies in Soviet ports and in bases as of September 2, 1945.

The inventory thus reflects the actual status of lend-lease supplies undistributed among consumers on V–J Day.⁴

These data substantially differ from American data in the Memorandum of May 13, 1947, covering the corresponding categories of supplies, which data were computed a priori, solely on the basis of abstract statistical calculations. Such purely statistical calculations naturally could not have taken into consideration a number of circumstances, and consequently they do not reflect the actual status of the undistributed lend-lease balance.

It should be noted, in particular, that the method of computation of balances of goods applied in this Memorandum with regard to consumables, could not have led to correct results for the following reason. The estimate of the balances in the American Memorandum of May 13, 1947, includes all articles in the said category which arrived in the USSR after June 1, 1945, and in some cases even after March 1, 1945 [1946?], while actually lend-lease supplies which arrived in Soviet ports, because of an acute shortage of various commodities which the USSR experienced during the last months of the war, were immediately turned over to the consumers—the appropriate military formations and rear organizations—and consequently should not be included in the balances of articles remaining in the USSR as of September 2, 1945.

The fact that after the capitulation of Germany almost all lend-lease supplies from the USA were routed to the Far Eastern USSR ports, as they were destined to provide for the needs of Soviet armed forces in the Far East and of their immediate rear, contributed to the quick transfer of supplies to consumers.

As regards lend-lease shipments for the USSR to the Persian Gulf ports, to which reference is made in the Memorandum, it is well known that these were discontinued as far back as February, 1945, and thereafter supplies were shipped to the Black Sea ports.

In connection with these circumstances a substantial part of the supplies in Class I, considered in the American Memorandum as remaining in the USSR on September 2, 1945, actually was already consumed or in the disposition of final consumers at the war’s end.

1. Handed by Mr. Arutyunyan to Mr. Labouisse at the 6th meeting of the Combined Working Group on June 11.
2. Not printed.
3. The Fourth (Ottawa) Protocol, covering the period from July 1, 1944 to June 30, 1945, was signed on April 17, 1945, by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the Soviet Union. The text is in Department of State, Soviet Supply Protocols, pp. 89–156. The announcement of the signature made in Ottawa on April 20, 1945, is printed in Department of State Bulletin, April 22, 1945, p. 723.
4. In the course of the day’s session, when Mr. Labouisse made efforts to clarify the exact nature of the information used in preparation of the Soviet inventory, the United States minutes recorded these remarks: “Mr. Arutiunian replied that the Soviet Memorandum on Inventory just presented was the only statement of inventory the Soviet side would be able to present to the U. S. side.… He said that the Soviet Government did not expect to have to return any of the lend-lease equipment to the U. S. and had not kept its records as if that would be the case. He stated further that there was no obligation in the Lend-Lease Agreement to return lend-lease articles. Mr. Labouisse called his attention to Article V of the Soviet Master Agreement which provides specifically for the return of articles which the President deems useful to the U. S. The U. S. representatives also pointed out that the transfer receipts which the Navy Department held in respect of each naval vessel stated specifically that Public Law No. 1 of the 78th Congress governed the terms of transfer. That law requires the return of all naval vessels so transferred at the end of the war. Mr. Arutiunian did not dispute this and apparently felt that he had made a misstatement.”